


A Brush With Celebrity

by Diglossia



Category: Panik
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2010-01-22
Updated: 2010-01-21
Packaged: 2017-10-06 13:20:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 12,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/54078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Diglossia/pseuds/Diglossia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kelly is in shock when the members of Panik show up at her work. Her natural curiosity leads her to trouble, though, when she finds out the rockstars she's been dreaming about are part of a secret gang that's intent on reclaiming something she has.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Work Is Supposed To Be Boring, Right?

Kelly looked up, not quite bored, as the college girls set themselves down at the table she had just cleaned. No thank you, not even a look as they tossed their bags and cell phones down. It was to be expected: they hardly noticed her sweeping the tables of food debris or crouching down to swipe stray napkins and abandoned straws from the floor. It was actually slightly unnerving when someone, typically a pretty, preppy student, murmured thanks. The words would yank Kelly out of the dream world she had been inhabiting, where the dirty reflections off of the tables and her own thoughts were all she noticed. 

Kelly actually noticed a whole lot in that dream state during her dining work hours. Like how the chairs surrounding a table were more or less than four or how a table was too close to blocking the women's restroom. Until she was talking to someone, she never noticed how quickly she moved from table to table, cleaning this one or stocking the napkins higher than needed. The trip on Saturday night with a frustrated Julia had been amusing, the distraught girl unable to get in a full sentence about her friend not answering her phone calls before Kelly moved to a new table. Customers had a tendency to pounce on dirty tables if she did not clean them fast enough, making Kelly look bad for leaving them unclean and making her managers mad.

Often, Kelly would work for five or eight hours straight with her only breaks being deliberate trips to the bathroom or the post-service, where she would scarf down chicken fingers or slices of pizza as the managers talked. Sometimes the translator for the Spanish speakers was especially bad and she would get a few extra minutes to drink her soda. She never could manage to walk and drink. 

It was a Wednesday night that _they_ came in. 

Kelly had been stupid enough to agree to take over Alex's shift so that he could do…something. She knew he would never pay her back for the effort and that she would be screwed that night once clean-up came (God, but she remembered the last time it had only been her and the cashiers doing dining- wrangling cats would have been easier) but he asked for her help and she just could not say no. 

A very attractive boy was sitting at the booth in the corner. Kelly watched him out of the corner of her eye as she did her rounds. She had cleaned the table earlier, though, so she would have no excuse to go near it.

A random country song came on the radio- she never did know who controlled it- and Kelly recognized it as Collin Raye's I Can Still Feel You. She found herself singing along tunelessly to her mother's favorite singer, the words so familiar that they fell easily from her talentless lips, "I can still feel you just as close as skin every now and then/ all by myself, in a crowded room, on my empty bed…" before she remembered that the last time she heard that song, she was twelve and she hated it then. It was one of those back-of-the-mind supposed hatreds that she could never keep to. Just like she was supposed to hate Taylor Swift now for not being a real country singer and the Dixie Chicks for that dumb statement they made in London that had them banned from all the country stations. Ah, well, she listened to ICP and TTC, Khaled and Outlandish, Bushido and LaFee, so what harm could Collin Raye be? Still, a shudder passed through her when she remembered him.

All this she thought while cleaning the tables. A glance showed her that the basketball game was still on. She wiped the counter underneath the television and sorted the napkins strewn across the tables nearby. Kelly ducked down to pick up a fork smeared with some sauce. She grimaced when she found a hairpin underneath an empty cup. Nothing grossed her out like hair accessories. At least the university was predominantly white and Asian and she did not have to deal with the tracks and weaves of her high school. 

Kelly moved from that last table with a handful of used napkins and the fork to the three trashcans near the exit. They were nearly full. Alex would get those, she thought, and then realized Alex was not there. Sighing, she reminded herself to do those soon. 

It was when she walked back to the soda fountains to get a quick drink that she noticed the boy again. He was sitting down and he seemed quite short- that was no surprise, Kelly was 5' 10" and most boys were as tall as or shorter than her. She almost blushed when his friend sat down because her attention was diverted immediately to the newcomer. He looked so much like her lesbian Puerto Rican friend, Tif, that she instantly found herself attracted to him as well. 

Which was nothing new, Kelly was not exactly the sexiest thing around and her interests were always roomy enough for her to be happy with whatever she got. Being bi only gave her an excuse to flirt with most everything that breathed. 

When the third and the fourth boy sat down, though, Kelly knew that she recognized them- and that she was probably, being the only one halfways fluent in German, the only person in the whole dining hall who knew who they were. 

Nevada Tan, _the_ Nevada Tan (or was it Panik now? Kelly could not remember) was sitting in the corner booth.


	2. Criminals

Kelly glanced around. She slipped the top off of her soda, knowing she would get yelled at later for using a paper cup instead of the recyclable ones but there was no way she was walking all the way to the steamer _now_, not with four members of the hottest German band within her sights.

She walked over to Jasmine's line and struck up a conversation with the depressed cashier. Kelly listened to Jasmine complain once again about not having a boyfriend and how her weekend had sucked. Kelly pretended to care about what Jasmine was telling her but it was always the same thing: complaining about this or that, never ever happy. Kelly's eyes were focused just over Jasmine's shoulder at the four boys huddled in the corner booth.

"How do you say idiot in Japanese?" Kelly asked, taking a sip from her cup.

Jasmine, a complete manga fan, fell for the basic distraction technique. Kelly only had to deliberately mispronounce the Japanese back at her and Jasmine would smile, proud of her language prowess. Jasmine, distracted, did not notice Kelly straining to hear bits of German over the blur of English speakers.

She nearly choked when Juri Schewe put a tray down on the other side of Jasmine's line. Kelly found herself staring up at him, drinking in his tall, muscular form. Juri ignored her and paid for his food with cash. Jasmine fumbled with the bills, unused to handling actual money as opposed to the university ID cards. Kelly laughed a little too loudly at Jasmine's muttered Janglish curses.

Juri's dark eyes flickered to Kelly for a second and her chest clenched. God but he was sexy. 

Juri left the line and Kelly lingered for a minute longer, watching as he walked away. He sat down at the booth with the others. Kelly's heart fluttered when he wrapped a long arm around T:mo's shoulders. 

She stared at the group for a bit longer before pulling away from Jasmine's line, promising the girl that she would talk to her later. Kelly grabbed her rag and started to clean in a wide semi-circle around the corner booth. The basketball game pounded overhead but the band members were talking loud enough for her to eavesdrop easily.

"What's taking Linke so long?" 

"Dunno, he said the library had something he wanted to look at."

"We're in the middle of nowhere for a book?"

Kelly looked up, glad that the fringe of her hair covered the direction of her gaze. There were, as she had seen before, only four people at the table. Jan, she thought, T:mo, Juri, and Franky. So it was Christian Linke and David missing.

"Huh. So Linke's at the library. Where's David?" she said, though only the carpet and the empty table heard her words.

Whatever. More often than not, she had to seem crazy while singing along to the radio. Who would notice a few curious words?

A tall black-clad figure swept by her, whipping a cold wind around her. The smell of slightly unpleasant cologne filled the air around Kelly. She straightened up in irritation and saw that it was the missing bassist, Linke.

Kelly smiled to herself and went back to wiping the table. She moved off, humming something that resembled an opera song.

ØØØ

As Linke sat down, he found his friends' eyes on him.

"She's watching us," T:mo said calmly.

Linke turned around.

"Who?" he asked, his slate blue eyes scanning the restaurant.

"The waitress, busgirl, whatever you call her, she's been watching us since we came in."

"It's her," Linke said abruptly, nodding towards the blonde girl, "I can feel the power radiating out from here. It has to be her."

"Are you sure, Chris?" Franky asked, "It could very well be someone she knows. Maybe she doesn't have it at all."

Linke got up quietly from the booth. The girl was moving quickly in a different direction and he pursued her. She was within reach of the bathroom- and safety- when he grabbed her wrist.

"You, follow me," he hissed in perfect English, directing the girl back to where the rest of the band sat.

Her eyes flashed and Linke felt her leg wrap backwards around his, hitting the back of his knee. She weighed more than he did but Linke caught himself before he fell by leaning against a pillar. The girl glared at him and tried to elbow him in between his ribs. He caught her shoulder this time. She looked back at him. Her eyes instantly turned deathly blank when they caught his steely gaze and she put up no fight as he pulled her back to the booth.

He let her mind go once they were a step from the others.

ØØØ

"Aue, let me go!" Kelly yelped.

The boy, Linke, just clutched her wrist tighter. Kelly was certain if it had been anyone else's bones that they would have cracked and been wrenched apart in tiny fractures. His eyes stared so hard at Kelly after she spoke that she had to stare down at her feet, away from that terrifying gaze, for fear of her already dwindling sanity. This had to be a dream.

"Please, just let me go," she begged, "I won't tell anyone that you're here. You can leave without me telling all of your fans. What do you want?"

"A pendant. It's made of yellow diamonds and silver. Where is it?"

"What?! I don't have any silver jewelry at all. I swear I don't. My stuff's fake except for some Indian necklaces and those are gold."

Linke shook his head angrily.

"You have it. I can feel it strongly around you. This whole place reeks of you."

Kelly's nostrils flared as anger took over her fear. Were all celebrities this rude?

"I work here, thanks, so I probably do smell a little funky but that's hardly any of your business."

"Pack up everything you need. You're coming with us."

Kelly gaped and closed her eyes.

"What? No, that's not possible. Please, I'm just a college student," she cried.

Her eyes opened and she realized she was in her dorm room. How had they gotten back here? They could only have gotten in with her ID card and her password but she hadn't given them that, had she? Kelly started to wonder if she had been wrong and these men were a group of criminals who impersonated Panik to get what they wanted. Maybe they had been following her for this, this pendant for days or even weeks, lying in wait for a chance to get her alone.

"Please let me go," she begged again, the man who looked like Christian Linke's hand still crushing her wrist.

Cold stares were her only answer. 

"Take what you need," Linke said.

Linke, or the man pretending to be him, let go and Kelly fell to the ground. She glanced behind her. Her roommate was dead asleep. Maybe, if she called out-

"You can try, girl, but your friend can't hear you. Get your things, we don't want to waste all day with you."

Kelly did not stop to wonder if Georgia was dead or just drugged. These men obviously had the situation under control and she was at their mercy. Kelly wiped her eyes as hot tears seared her cheeks. She grabbed her computer, some clothes, a toiletry bag, and an assortment of items that only made her kidnappers watch curiously: a crystal collection; a huge box of jewelry; perfumes; and several curious looking boxes and cups.

ØØØ

By now even Juri could feel the intense power in the room. Linke had been right. Somewhere, in the mass of things that the girl had packed up, was what they were looking for.


	3. Prisoner

"But I can't be full-blood anything! My family's from all over Europe! There are at least eight countries in my background and none of my great-grandparents were born in the US. You've got me mixed up with someone else."

"Do you have any proof? Immigration records from Ellis Island, San Francisco, any major ports? Unchanged last names? Birth certificates? Social Security Numbers?"

Kelly shook her head.

She was getting frustrated. Not only did these men have her chained to the wall of an icy room, she was naked and without any of her things. The man who looked like Linke had been questioning her for hours about the pendant. They had searched through her belongings and, though she had heard sounds of surprise and excitement at what they did find, the cursed thing had not shown up.

Linke had been insisting that she tell him everything she knew about her family. He seemed to think she had inherited the pendant from a great-grandmother though he did not know from which side of her family tree that might be. Kelly had nearly broken down when he had started to say that her parents might have been lying to her for years about her ancestry. She had no clue why any of that mattered since what they were looking for was a piece of jewelry she clearly did not have.

"What was your paternal grandmother's maiden name?" he asked yet again.

Kelly growled. Her arms ached from being held above her head so long and these questions were getting nowhere.

"I told you. I think it was Richter, Anne-Marie Richter. Originally from Saarland."

"And your maternal grandmother's?"

"Inga Kristiansen. She emigrated from Norway as a baby."

Linke just shook his head, his dark hair swinging into his face. Kelly's answers were obviously not what he was looking for. He left the room, slamming the door on his way out. Kelly leaned back against the wall and grimaced. Her hands were going numb.

I will not cry, she told herself. This is just a dream. I'm going to wake up in my dorm and Georgia's going to be snoring right across the room. I'm going to be back home.

ØØØ

Linke slumped into the chair in the main room. His coven sat around him in similar states of exhaustion. The effort of transporting the girl from America to their studio apartment had sapped them of all their energy. It should have been an easy enough task but she had fought her way out of the trance they had put her under halfway across the Atlantic and had nearly drowned them all.

He had been so sure that she had the pendant that would make David well again. He had felt it on her the moment he had touched down two hundred miles away when it was just a dull pulse against his skin. Pursuing the source had broken all sorts of international laws but, if they could find proof that the girl was not fully human, they would be pardoned. One of their members was dying and the changes the girl's presence had wrought in the last hour alone on David's condition were miraculous. 

"I can't get into her mind," Linke said, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Of course you can't," Juri snorted at his friend, "She's not human and she's definitely got some defenses up there."

"I know. I'm starting to think that she's telling the truth and she doesn't know the power she has."

"So she doesn't have the pendant?"

"Maybe not. But whatever she does have, it's making David better."

ØØØ

Jan watched the prisoner sleep. She was on the floor, naked, and he could not suppress the urge to look at her. She was one of the oddest looking people he had ever seen unclothed.

She was taller than him with incredibly broad shoulders and hips that were barely wider than her waist. Her hair was a blonde fluff in disarray across her neck and her skin was pale. Though her thighs and legs were thick, her collarbone and shoulder blades were easily visible, as were her wrist and ankle bones. Her breasts were disproportionately small. What was most curious though, was the size of her hands and feet. They almost made the rest of her look dainty in comparison. Jan wanted to press his foot up against hers just to see how much space there would be between the top of his foot and hers.

He only had watch for a couple of hours more. The girl was chained to the wall. Maybe he could get some sleep. 

Jan put his chin in his left hand and closed his eyes. There was nowhere the girl could go, right?

ØØØ

Kelly opened her eyes. It had worked: the boy had thought she was asleep from the steady rhythm of her breathing. The chains that before had hung over her head were now on the ground and loose around her wrists and ankles. She twisted her right hand out of the cuff easily, then the left. Her feet took more effort but she was used to flexing her feet to put jeans on. It had been years since her feet had stopped growing and Kelly was used to compensating for them.

She paused and studied Jan for a second. He was asleep. She grinned and stood up, bracing an arm against her breasts. Kelly opened the door and slithered through soundlessly. Somehow, she had to find a way out of here.

The room beyond her holding cell was just as cold. Kelly could smell metal in the air. She glanced around and saw a piano and recording equipment. 

A faint buzzing caught her attention. It was almost like a vibrating earache or that itching feeling between your throat and ear canal that you could never reach. It bothered her. 

Kelly decided to ignore it and make her way out. She pressed against the door, listening. At first she heard nothing but then there were faint voices. Kelly would have to wait for those to go away; she had no idea what was on the other side of that door. Who were these people that would kidnap a girl? It wasn't like she was prime picking, especially now that they had realized she did not have their pendant.

The voices grew louder but came no closer. Kelly sat down on the floor, holding her hands over her still exposed chest. She looked around the room. She hoped to find a sheet or a towel, anything to bind herself with. 

The buzzing grew louder. Kelly almost clucked her tongue against her throat to get rid of the itch but then realized the sound would alert someone if they heard it. Kelly looked around again. A microphone rested on a stand. Kelly stood up and walked over to the stand, her left arm still holding her breasts down. 

She picked the microphone up. Maybe it was on and that was the sound she was hearing? The cold metal felt soothing against her fingers. Kelly closed her eyes instinctively and just _felt_ the microphone. She could feel the strains of a hard voice pounding against it and the warm hands that had clutched it before. It was...tired, exhausted from overuse. The cord was frayed and the metal bindings were falling apart with wear. So much use and no attention.

 

She stroked it with her fingers, feeling every inch of the instrument. It needed her. 

 

Kelly wrapped her hands around the microphone and laid it against the hollow between her breasts. The beating of her heart pulsed against the microphone. Kelly could feel it relax against her. She reached deep inside herself and fell into a light meditation. The metal warmed where it touched her. 

 

There was a hallway with colored doors to the right of her. She passed the two shades of purple and the blue. She stopped at the green door and walked up the steps. The door was wooden and the green paint was fading but she pushed against it anyway. The door opened. Before her was a dirt path lined with high trees. Kelly followed the path for a time before slipping between the trees. She sat down, the microphone cord trailing behind her.

 

It was so calm there.

 

Kelly opened her eyes. She was back in the equipment room. Kelly placed the microphone back on its stand and walked out, heading back to her cell. If she was quiet and the boy was still asleep, no one would know she had left.


	4. Under His Control

Kelly didn't know how long she stayed in that cell. Every few hours the guard would change and she'd be given water or something to eat. Jan had been the first, then Juri, and now Linke. He asked no questions now, just glared at her. 

She glared back at him until her head hurt. He said nothing.

"Who are you?" Kelly asked.

He did not answer. She sighed and sat up, her knees folded against her chest. Linke looked embarrassed all of a sudden and left the room, returning with a shirt and a pair of shorts. They weren't her own clothes and they were far too big but she was freezing and put them on when he unlocked the handcuffs.

"You know, someone's going to notice that I'm gone," she said.

He stayed silent, his expression unchanging.

"I never clocked out."

No response.

"Julia and I were going to see a movie after I got off work. She'll be waiting for me."

A statue would have more variability than the man sitting before her.

"Georgia's on the field hockey team. Her teammates are going to notice when she doesn't show up at practice."

Kelly glanced at him for a second, then resumed her chatter.

"Her best friend's in the suite. She's gonna try to come in the room sometime. If Georgia doesn't wake up-"

"Shut up!" Linke finally snapped, "Your roommate's fine, okay?! No one, I repeat, _no one_, is going to notice that you're gone."

Kelly grinned.

"Why not? I've been gone for more than a couple hours. Someone is going to realize that I'm missing," she said, pleased that she had gotten him to pay attention to her.

"Time doesn't pass the same way here. Every hour you think you've been here is barely a second of world time. Time passes differently for us. Since you're here, you experience time the same way we do."

"What is that? Some mumbo-jumbo subliminal bullshit to make me think you control me? It's not gonna work. You guys are jokes. I know you're not real criminals. I know this is just some sick game you and your, your frat-brothers are playing on me!" Kelly spat the words, adding a venomous courage she didn't feel. 

There. Let him know that she wasn't scared of him. 

The cuffs around her wrists and ankles tightened violently. Kelly looked down at her hands and shrieked. The metal had turned into two enormous yellow and white snakes coiling around her. One moved up her left arm and slithered around her neck, squeezing tightly. Kelly grabbed it and tried to wrench it away. It hissed and the scales slid from underneath her fingers.

Unable to breathe, Kelly fell forward. Her head hit the floor hard. She sobbed with relief when the constriction stopped. She lay against the floor, winded. 

When she looked up, cold blue eyes stared at her. The snakes were gone, replaced by the metal cuffs.

Linke kneeled down so that his face was level with hers.

"This is very real. You have something we want. This will go a lot better if you cooperate."

Kelly glowered at him.

"I don't have the fucking pendant," she sneered.

He smiled a half-smile and shook his head.

"That won't work. I know you do and, until you tell us where it is, you're going to stay right here."

"I can get out," she said icily, "I already have. Your chains can't hold me."

He raised an eyebrow.

"You mean when you got into the recording room?"

Kelly's eyes widened. She closed them tightly and bit her lip. So they had known. They really were watching her every move.

"Girl, you can try to walk out of here any time you want. It won't do any good: you can't get back without our help. Good luck once you walk out the front door."

ØØØ

Jan slid a finger down David's too pale cheek. He seemed to be getting better but David had not stirred during the time Jan had watched over him. David's breathing was deeper and some warmth had returned to his body but he was still gone.

David lay on a white bed with sumptuous sheets. Rather grandiose for someone who couldn't feel them underneath him. David had been in a comatose state for a week. The coven couldn't take him to a hospital without revealing their secret and they doubted the doctors could do anything for him.

Jan checked the clock on the wall. He had ten more minutes.

"You're going to get in trouble if Chris finds you here," Franky said from where he sat by the door.

"He's my partner," Jan said, though the words sounded more like a question than a statement.

"Doesn't matter. You know how Chris feels about you. Why don't you just do what he says?"

"I just wanted to see David," Jan whispered.

Franky sighed.

"I'm just saying that you're being stupid, Jan. Chris is going to kill you if he comes back and you're here."

"I wanted to see David," Jan said again as his throat tightened with emotion.

The door whipped open. Jan turned to see Chris's cool eyes fill with hatred.

"Get out," Linke hissed.

Jan's lip trembled. Linke moved towards him menacingly, electric sparks flaring at the edges of his aura. Jan bowed his head and walked out. The door closed behind him. Hot tears coursed down Jan's weary face. It was so unfair: his partner was lying in death's grip and he couldn't even be in the same room with him for an hour without Linke forcing him out. David was _his_ and he wasn't allowed to see him.

ØØØ

T:mo hated when his turn came to watch the girl. The others said that she made them feel twitchy, like there was something dangerous about her. She just seemed crazy to T:mo. Every time he had watch she would talk to herself, beginning in English, which he could understand some of, then switching to Spanish, then French and on into languages he had never heard before. He had thought she was trying to tell him something at first. Now her words seemed to be aimless dialogue bent on distracting him.

The coven still had not figured out what she was- T:mo was betting on a nix from her absent chatter- even though Linke spent hours studying her. Linke was still firmly under the belief that she had the pendant somewhere and was hiding it from him. David had actually opened his eyes earlier that day.

"What are you?" the girl asked.

T:mo blinked.

"You speak German?"

That was a surprise. Linke had told them that he had talked to her in English. That was why he had been the only one to interrogate her.

"Yes," she said, "What are you?"

"What do you mean?" T:mo stalled, unsure of how much Linke had told her.

"The other man turned my chains into snakes. That's not normal. What are you?"

T:mo grimaced and then shrugged mentally. He might as well tell her: there was nothing she could do and they had been planning to wipe her mind once they got the pendant.

"I'm a witch."

"A wizard? Like a Wiccan? You people don't seem the type to go around raising energy and worshipping the earth," she said.

"A witch. Wizard has bad connotations. We're not Wiccans: we're real witches. The guys you met are part of my coven."

"Ah. So you're pretending to be German rock stars."

T:mo laughed.

"No, we really are Panik. We're more than that, though. Music is one of the things that holds us together as a coven. We perform and make albums in our spare time."

She did not say anything for several moments. She stared at the floor.

"I don't have your pendant. Why won't you let me go?" she said.

"You're not surprised that we're magick?" he asked.

"I just wanna go home," she said, "You could be Satanists for all I care."

T:mo grinned.

"I have watch for another two hours. How about I tell you about us?" he asked, settling back.

Kelly looked up from her position on the floor.


	5. Linke

"A long time ago, before Christianity, before Buddhism, before Judaism even, most people believed in gods. Almost every major civilization had their own pantheon, the Greeks had the Olympians, the Celts had the Tuatha de Danann, the Egyptians had their gods, and so on. No group of gods was better than the rest, they each had their respective territories and peoples. Magick was something to be celebrated because the gods used it. It wasn't like now where people think it's evil or weird. Back then magick was something everyone believed in.

Some people were blessed by the gods and were able to communicate with them. They were called shamans or priests. Some people were fairy-folk or mixed race creatures and could do easy magick: things like card tricks and mind games. There are too many names for them for me to tell you, everything from shapeshifters to dryads to demons. Some people could tap into the earth and control the elements. Those are your modern day Wiccans and occultists. Some people had tools that brought them power. Then, there are people like me and my coven who inherit magickal power genetically. 

At first, the witches were not controlled. They just existed and followed the laws of their families and countries. Before Christianity, Europe was a hotbed of magickal power. The Burning Times came and most witches went into hiding. Some families died out, some turned to incest, some to inter-racial and inter-species marriages. The number of witches decreased proportionately. In real numbers, though, the witches were as strong as ever. A council was created to monitor magick.

We take a test when we're about fourteen to measure our strength and talent with magick. If we do well enough, we're then given a partner from the age of fifteen, someone whose power complements or balances ours out. Until we reach maturity, at twenty, we are required to interact and work with our partner. It's almost like an arranged marriage: the council chooses for you and you accept. Sometimes it works out perfectly, sometimes there are problems."

"So…most witches have a partner?" she asked.

T:mo's story had sounded so well-rehearsed, like he knew it by heart. The words were spoken easily and Kelly couldn't help but believe him. She was sure she would have sounded much the same if someone had asked her to tell them what had happened during World War II. 

"If they're strong enough, yeah," he said, "But, if someone's really good, then they can test out and go solitary but that's fucking hard as hell and not many witches can do that."

"Do you have a partner?"

T:mo smiled and raked a hand through his bristly hair.

"Yeah. I think you met him, the tall guy with the blonde hair."

Kelly almost snorted at the euphemism. Yes, she had 'met' all of her jailors, she'd had no other choice.

"Juri?" she asked.

"Mmm."

They talked for a time. T:mo seemed to get more comfortable as the minutes passed. He asked Kelly a little about herself and she soon found that they had a similarly dirty sense of humor. It made Kelly feel a little better. She did not feel so alone with T:mo talking to her even if what he was telling her was difficult for her to believe. Linke's snake trick had upset her more than she wanted to admit. Kelly was not at all sure that her grasp of the real world had anything to do with the truth.

ØØØ

It was on a day that Franky was watching her that Kelly heard the yelling. Her blonde head raised up at the harsh sound and she peered around. Before then, she would have sworn that her cell was sound-proof.

Franky only sighed deeply, shifting slightly. His eyes stayed focused on the sheets of paper resting against his legs even as Kelly stood up. She knew that nothing she said or did could make Franky pay attention to her- well, nothing she had tried, she was pretty sure an impromptu lap dance might make him bat an eyelash but she had too much pride for _that_\- and so would spend his watches stretching or pacing around.

She walked to the door and pressed her right ear against it, listening. 

Linke's now familiar voice came through clearly. It was slightly disconcerting to hear him speak German since he only spoke English to her but she could understand him plainly. Kelly winced at the bite to his voice. She pitied whoever he was berating.

Kelly stayed pressed against the door until she couldn't hear Linke anymore. She missed him, just a little bit. At least he talked to her.

ØØØ

Linke smoothed the pillow under David's head. David was waking up again. Linke had checked him thoroughly the last time he had been awake, making sure that he was physically and mentally sound. Linke had been scared that his brain might have been scattered from the accident. But David was fine. His heart beat strongly and his color had returned. But he was still so tired. Linke smiled as David curled up under the blankets, his beautiful head turned towards Linke. They looked at each other with no need for words. Every now and again David would smile or say a sentence or two. Mostly, though, he would drift in and out of consciousness as his body tried to heal itself.

"Where's Jan?" David murmured suddenly.

Linke sniffed. That was the third time David had asked for Jan. 

"He's not here, Davii," Linke whispered, stroking David's hand.

"Why not?" 

David's voice was soft. He sounded almost lost and scared, even though Linke was right beside him, holding his hand. Linke smiled reassuringly. David smiled back. 

"He's busy, Davii. He'll come see you later."

"Okay," David mumbled, his words slurring as his eyes closed.

He watched as David fell back asleep. Linke had gotten him to eat a little and take some restorative brew. Linke wove a basic healing spell over his sleeping love. He had been weaving a new one every day in the hopes that they would help. Until the girl came, though, they hadn't worked, not one bit. That scared Linke even more. He couldn't heal David, none of the coven could. Linke wished she would just give him the Borvo pendant. 

Stolen from an Indian temple to Dhanvantari thousands of years ago, the pendant had been washed in the waters of Borvo's mineral springs and blessed by Apollo himself, and was capable of healing any wound or disease. It had passed from holy family to holy family ever since, belonging at times to Apollo's son Asclepius, Ezekiel the Jewish prophet, and Pahana, the Hopi Elder Brother. It's last known use was by Coatlicue, the Aztec goddess, who had used it to heal her daughter Coyolxauhqui after her limbs were torn from her body and her head thrown into the sky. The pendant had then faded from common knowledge, though it was purported to have been brought to America a hundred and fifty years ago as the stolen treasure of a missionary's wife. 

The coven had started their search in the country's capital, at the Smithsonian Museum. They had searched the many museums of the city and then had ventured south where Linke had been certain he had felt its presence. They had stopped in the mountains at a university. The feeling of healing power had been incredible, the whole place alight with the vibrant green of healing energy. Linke had been positive it was there.

Had he been wrong? Did she truly not have Borvo's pendant? 

Why, then, had bringing the girl back healed David more than the coven's efforts combined? She had pulled him back from death in the span of an hour of their time, what would only be a second of hers. No normal human could do that, not without help. She had to have it.

But…if she didn't? Oh gods, what would they do when they let her go?


	6. The Wrong One

Juri thumbed through the ancient text once again, pausing over the section related to Celtic gods. He hated sitting down and researching; he had always been more the type for action than theory and history. Who cared if someone had done something a thousand years ago? What good could it do him?

He huffed, stirring ancient dust from the tome. He was supposed to be looking up Borvo and his bloodlines but he kept stopping on the pages about fairies and magickal creatures. A small sketch of a bean sidhe, a banshee, wailing beside a red-tinged pool of water stared up at him. Her head turned up to look at his and an evil smile bloomed on her tragic face.

Juri blinked. Pictures didn't move unless they were spelled. He reached out with his mind and tested the page. Blinding red energy flung back up at him. It reached for his inner defenses as it tried to suck his mind down into its feral magick, meaning to ensnare him. Juri swore and slammed the book closed, laying it on the table in front of him. 

T:mo was in the room in an instant. He walked around to the back of Juri's seat and massaged Juri's stiff neck muscles, then wrapped his arms around his partner. 

"What happened?" T:mo asked, his voice worried.

"That book is spelled," Juri said, pointing at the tome.

T:mo groaned.

"Not another one. We'll never be able to get information if they all are like that," he said, laying his head on Juri's shoulder and pressing a soft kiss to Juri's neck, "Franky says the girl healed the broken mic."

"What?" Juri asked, his eyebrows raising, "That's not possible. Borvo's pendant can only heal organic matter."

"I know," T:mo said, his head pressing tighter into Juri's shoulder,"I'm really starting to think she's the source of the healing."

"Dammit."

"Yeah."

ØØØ

Kelly screamed and pounded against the door to her cell. After Linke had questioned her once more he had left. No one had come in for hours. She was alone and all light was gone. Kelly leaned against the door and slid to the floor. She put her head in her hands and cried.

The clothes she had been given were now dingy and greasy from where she had wiped her face against them. They smelled: she was without deodorant or soap and had not been given a shower or even a rag in the time she had been imprisoned.

Her heart cried out for her jailors. They were the only people she had now and she would have traded her soul to have one of them be there again, just so she wouldn't be completely alone. The silence and emptiness of the cell made her feel so desperately alone.

"Help me," Kelly whispered, "Someone help me."

Kelly stood up, an idea suddenly occurring to her. She grasped the doorknob and turned it. The recording room would be right there. She could walk out and find the Linke and his coven.

She smiled through her tears as she swung the door open. She stepped forward- and fell into nothingness. Kelly grabbed the doorframe instinctively. She looked down at the empty black and white speckled abyss that stood before her. The recording room was gone. 

Kelly reached out a hand and touched the place where the recording room floor should be. Nothing. White dots swirled around her hand. They prickled her skin painfully. Kelly shut the door and sobbed. She had nowhere to go.

Linke, she thought. God, she missed him. 

"Linke," she cried, hitting the door with her aching hands, "Please, come back. Please."


	7. The Healer Is Saved

A glow of surreal light invaded the darkness of Kelly's cell. She watched it, one eye closed, as it grew stronger. It cast blue and green around the room, turning Kelly's skin a sickly turquoise color. The light grew stronger and stronger until she could make out a figure in the center of it. The light seemed to swirl around the shape of a woman. The sound of a stream burbling reached Kelly's ears.

_Sit up, granddaughter,_ an eerie voice whispered.

Kelly did so. A tall woman stood before her. Her skin was a bluish-purple and water dribbled from her mouth as she spoke. Bits of water weeds and rush were threaded through her damp blonde hair.

_Granddaughter, it saddens me to see you in this state. Who has put you here?_

"Witches, a coven of them. They say that I have something they want."

_And do you?_

"No."

_Then they have enchained you wrongly._

"Yes. Will you help me?"

_No. I will not. Your kind and mine have hated each other for eons. The giants would never forgive me for touching one of their own._

"One of their own? But I'm not a giant, I'm just a girl. Please help me."

_You are a giantess just as I am the Lorelei. You are what you are, granddaughter. I will not help you._

"Can you find someone who will?"

_I cannot. Your blood is not my blood and your friends are my foes. You must reach out to the old gods. Odin will not help you, nor will Thor. Loki, the trickster who loves your kind, cannot. Call to one of his children._

"Who?"

_Jörmungandr, Fenrir, Hel: these three were born of the giantess Angrboda. I must go. I have left my waters for too long. Goodbye, granddaughter._

The odd blue-green light faded swiftly and the woman's shape became blurred. She truly was leaving, as swiftly as she had come.

"Wait! Lorelei, please wait. Please…" Kelly called but the goddess was gone. 

She sat for a time pondering the water witch's words. Call to one of Loki's children? Loki was a myth, a character in the stories she had read as a teenager. He could not exist. But, then, a Rhine maiden who was if anything even more of a myth, had just appeared in her cell. Loki was a troublemaker and his children were a tricky lot from what Kelly had read. What good would calling one of them do? Jörmungandr, the World Snake lived under the oceans. He was so great that he encircled all of the world under his body. Summoning him would kill Kelly if he tried to fit in her cell. Fenrir was vicious, a monstrous wolf who had been in captivity for centuries with the knowledge that one day he would be freed and kill the king of the gods. He would be unable to come to her. Hel, the irritable half-dead ruler of hell, was the only one left.

Kelly breathed in and out slowly, gathering what little boldness she had. She thought a desperate plee for help and flung it out, imagining that it traveled from her cell out to the wide expanse that was Niflheim and sinking down until it found the goddess seated on her throne of death.

No swirling lights came this time. The cell remained dark, though a soft glow emanated from the center of the room. The smell of rotting meat filled the air as Hel emerged. 

She was both beautiful and hideous. The right side of her body was beautiful, shapely, and luminously pale. The left side was a mess of dank, half-rotten flesh and bones. The places where the beauty and death merged were unsettling. Hel's nose was thin and slightly flared on the right and a black hole on the left. Her lips and forehead were the same, with white bones showing through. Kelly was repulsed but she knew her possible savior would not appreciate such blatant disrespect. She hung her head, unsure what to say.

_You have called me?_ A rough voice like a pack of dogs whining asked.

"Yes, my name's Kelly. Will you help me?" Kelly said.

Hel turned first the living side of her body to study Kelly and then the other. Kelly looked into her eyes, pleading. 

_No. You ask for something that is not in my power to give. You are not dead and so belong not to me._

"Please. Witches have thrown me here and left me. I am alone and I am close to death. Please save me."

The goddess only stared fiercely at her. Kelly could not read her expression and did not know whether it was pride or sympathy.

_You have yet time to live. I cannot help you. Those who can brought you here. There is one who pities you: find him and you will have your freedom._

Kelly nodded as Hel disappeared. She had known it would be a poor gamble to rely on a death goddess when she was not dead. But, Lorelei had told her that she was a giantess. Kelly rubbed her forehead. Was she really? Was that why her feet had grown so large and her shoulders so wide? Size twelve feet for a girl was practically unheard of where she was from. It explained some things, like why neither she nor any of her siblings had ever broken a bone and why they all had grown abnormally tall. Her eldest brother was 6'7" and her youngest was tall for his age as well.

Had their parents known? Were they full-blood giants? Kelly groaned inwardly at the ridiculous thoughts she was having. Giants were not real and neither were goddesses or Rhine maidens or witches, for that matter. Maybe her captors were computer whizzes and had set up holograms to torture her and she had bought it, kind of like in all those old Scooby-Doo episodes where the ghost seemed real until Velma pointed out the obvious clues and improbabilities.

Hell but, if this all were real, she had better start watching out for leprechauns and pots of gold. 

A creak at the door made Kelly look up. The door swung open fully and she had a glimpse of the recording room before little Jan came in. 

Here's my leprechaun, she thought.

ØØØ

The sound of infuriated screams followed Jan as he slammed the cell door closed. He steadied his breathing as he leaned against the icy metal door. Linke could be so cruel that Jan wondered hourly why he did not leave and go home where Linke could never follow. The coven would not fall apart with him gone: Juri and T:mo were solid; Franky's partner was tolerant; and Linke would take care of David. They did not need him, not one bit.

Jan was too tired to cry. His body was drained from the tears Linke had pulled out of him daily. He leaned his head against the door, letting the cold seep into him as the heat fled from his body. 

David did not want to see him. Linke had told Jan that David blamed him for what had happened and that he wanted nothing to do with him, not anymore. His partner did not want to see him. The pain of that rejection was killing Jan. He wanted to be with David. He wanted to talk to him and soothe him and make him better. But David did not want him. He should leave.

The girl was watching him. He looked up and she did not look away. Jan wondered if he should take her with him. He was strong enough to wipe her mind alone and send her home if she did not put up too much of a fight.

"I can get you out of here," he said, nodding at her chains, "I know they aren't doing anything, so you can take them off."

The girl studied him for a moment before obliging and sliding the cuffs off easily. She dropped them to the floor where they landed with a dull clang. 

Jan walked over to her and took her hand in his own. 

"Whatever you do, don't let go. Got it?" he said.

She nodded and he opened the door. He saw a surprised look in her eyes when the room on the other side was a bedroom, instead of the recording room she had escaped to during his first watch. He murmured a quick spell and all of her things materialized. They drifted into a backpack that had been among her things, becoming smaller until they fit perfectly. He picked the backpack up and handed it to her. She took it and she followed him as he walked back through the door they had come through. This time, there was no room on the other side, just an empty park. 

Jan crouched and sprang up, taking the girl up into the air with him. They would fly from there.


	8. The Journey and David's Awakening

Kelly had never felt so tired as when they touched down on that grassy hill. She had no idea of the passage of time there and could only fall limply to the ground and lay her head on the grass. The sun was shining brightly and white puffs of cumulus clouds drifted overhead slowly. The trees around her were in full bloom with the white, pink, and bright purple of freshest flowers. The air smelled of honeysuckle and jasmine and long grass. Clover and dandelions sprang up all around, the little white and yellow flower heads sweet and new. The whole world seemed like spring, when children would go on Easter egg hunts and bulbs would send up their thick leaves to greet the warm air.

Jan told her that she had time to rest before they took to the sky again. 

He was so nice. Kelly wondered how he had become involved with someone as horrible as Linke. Jan was so small and sweet. He reminded her of someone but she just couldn't remember who…

ØØØ

Jan almost swore when he saw the girl fall asleep. He had forgotten what Faerie did to people who were not from there. A person could become so entranced with the glamour of Faerie that they would forget everything and just spend day after day drinking ambrosia and singing soft poetry, never realizing that the days turned to months and then years. A person could waste several lifetimes there without a care to the world, only a dull ache in his heart for a land just outside of Faerie's boundaries. Jan knew she was not fully human so she had to have some protection against its magick but the less time they spent there the better.

He let her sleep for ten minutes- a minute in Faerie was enough to restore the worst of souls- before waking her. He grabbed her hand and they took off. They could rest next in a more human place.

ØØØ

"Shit, you're cold! Are you okay?" Jan asked when he accidentally brushed against her.

Kelly suppressed the urge to snap at him. 

They were on a grassy strip of beach next to a deep lake. The place was deserted and a cool wind blew all around them, whipping Kelly's blonde hair this way and that. Jan had pulled a loaf of bread and two apples out from his pocket and they had eaten them while gazing out at the land-locked lake. High mountains surrounded the valley and Kelly could see the peaks far up in the sky. It was a beautiful view but it told her nothing of where they were.

"My natural body temperature is lower than normal," she said, "I have really, really low blood pressure and iron levels. I can't even donate blood."

"Oh, not that you could anyway, I mean, you're not human… um, the guys told me that you fixed one of the microphones," Jan said, not really looking at her.

Kelly had the feeling that she made him uncomfortable. It was an odd situation that they were in, after all: she the sprung jailbird and he the freer all alone out in the wilderness eating some bread and fruit. She really wished he had had red apples instead of the sour green one he had given her. Not that she was complaining, mind you. Jan was actually talking to her like he wanted to start a conversation and that was more than she'd been given in a while. She herself had been desperately lonely and had told him what had happened with the Lorelei and Hel and how she now knew that she was a giantess, and that she had never had Borvo's pendant. She did not know how much he had listened since she had just talked whenever something came to mind. God, she must sound like a lunatic.

"Yeah, I think so. I really only touched it, so I don't know how much I did."

"Oh. Are you really part-giant?" he asked.

Kelly sighed and sat back. Her legs were folded geisha-style in a way that would be uncomfortable to sit in for long. She wondered when they would leave again. There had been four of these stops so far and Jan seemed to be tiring quickly. They could have gone a thousand miles or just two for all she knew. The land was unfamiliar and completely devoid of human life. Some part of her cared but the rest was focused on the short man in front of her. Secretly, Jan was the lead role of a very naughty fantasy in the giantess' mind.

"I guess I am," she said, "What are you, then, a leprechaun?"

That made Jan laugh. He was cute to watch, little dimples showing when he smiled. But, he was still one of the men who had captured her and left her in a cell with little explanation and even less company. There had to be a dark side to that small creature.

"Close, I've got some clurichaun in me and my father was a full-blood pooka. Actually, that's part of the problem," he said softly, the laughter gone, "Linke says it's my fault because we were incompatible. It's my fault the spell went wrong and it backfired, and David went into shock. Linke said I was unstable and dangerous and that me and David were incompatible because I'm a cross-breed."

Kelly saw Jan's eyes turn to sadness.

"But you're still a witch, right?" she asked.

"Yeah, I am," he said, standing up and kicking the ground, "Let's clean up. We have a ways to go."

She stood reluctantly, wishing he would tell her more. Jan took Kelly's hand and they sprang into the air.

ØØØ

"You what?! Chris, I can't believe this!" David yelled, practically shaking the walls with the volume of his voice, "You kidnapped someone?! What's wrong with you? You can't just go around stealing non-humans out of their beds for no reason!"

"I had a reason…" Linke said weakly.

David glared at him and paced angrily, his eyes frighteningly wild. 

"And what was that exactly?" David huffed, folding his arms across his chest.

"I thought she had the Borvo pendant," Linke said as he bit his lip nervously.

"So why didn't you let her go when you found out she didn't, huh?" David said, staring Linke down.

"She made you better, she healed you, David. I couldn't let her go: you were going to die!" Linke said.

David sucked on his front teeth, visibly irritated.

"I'm sorry," Linke whispered, "I'm sorry."

Then he turned and ran out the door, leaving his love behind, leaving all his pain and failure and idiocy behind.


	9. Because Linke Can't Really Be Evil

David found Linke sitting on a large rock outcropping that overlooked a deep valley not a mile from the house. The tiny houses down below were part of a trick of the mind, really, as the valley was much closer than it appeared. 

Linke was staring out across the valley to the mountain top on the other side. A light wind blew his black hair into his face as David watched him. He pushed it back and laid his hand back on the rock. David walked up to him and sat down next to him without saying a word.

They were silent for a time.

"Do you even love me anymore, David?" Linke asked finally.

He looked at David blearily, his eyes and nose red from crying. David cupped Linke's face, tilting it down so that they were eye-to-eye.

"Of course I love you, you foolish idiot. I know that you love me more than anything else in the world or you wouldn't act the way you do. But I'm glad Jan took over and set that girl free even when you thought I still needed her. It was a mean and dangerous thing to do and we need to repay her for that.

But that's not all of it. Chris, I need you to learn that you are the _only_ one I'll ever be with. Jan is my partner: I accepted that fact when the council chose him. But that is all he is, Chris. He loves me no more and no less than I love Franky or Juri or T:mo. He never was competing with you for my love."

Linke looked away, his eyes wet. David sighed and hugged his stubborn fool of a boyfriend. He pressed his face into Linke's warm chest as sobs shook the taller man. 

"I love you, Chris. I will always love you," David said, looking up as tears trickled down Linke's face.

He knew how much it hurt Linke to open up like this. Linke put on a show that was so strong and resolute and just plain _smart_ that even most of the coven didn't have a clue about the rampant insecurity that Linke suffered from. David had known that when he had accepted Jan as his partner that Linke would never accept another but they had needed that distance to survive the five years of partnership. Had they been partnered, David was certain that one of them would have cracked and their relationship would have fallen apart. They had needed the space Jan gave them. David just wished he had told Linke that years ago instead of now, when Linke had already made a terrible mistake.

"I have to go after him, Chris. Will you come with me?" David asked.

Linke nodded and clutched David to him, letting David know that he never wanted to let him go. David smiled and kissed him again. There was still time to repair what was broken.

ØØØ

They found the giantess asleep on a hillside in Powys, in Wales. A backpack served as her pillow and the warm grass lay underneath her like a rough mattress. Jan was nowhere to be found.

Her eyes opened when the five witches touched down on the sloped ground. She frowned for a second then sat up, one leg bent up towards her rather flat chest. David walked over to her and knelt where she sat. She stared at him as though trying to remember who he was.

"What is your name?" he asked her in broken English. 

She responded in German, confirming that they had the right girl and not some Welsh maiden. 

"You're David, aren't you?" she said slowly, a distant look to her gaze, "My name's Kelly but it doesn't really matter. Can you take me home?"

"Yes, we can definitely get you back to America, but I would like to apologize first. I am very sorry about what my friends did to you," David said, "They aren't really bad people, they were just worried that I wasn't going to make it through another night. They made a mistake. Please, if there is anything I can do for you to make amends…"

"I just want to go home," Kelly said firmly.

"Do you want us to make it so that you don't remember any of this? We can do that and you can go on with your day. Very little time has passed in your world, maybe an hour or two. You would never know the difference."

Kelly shook her head.

"I think I'd rather remember this. I found out a lot of things about myself and real life in the last few days, minutes, whatever, and I kinda want to remember them."

"Okay," David said, smiling softly, "I would ask you to not tell our secret but there aren't many people who would believe you if you told them anyway."

Kelly grinned.

"I won't tell," Kelly said.

David extended a hand.

"Agreed?" he asked.

"Agreed," she said, shaking it.

"There are a few things we need to do, though, before we can take you back. For one, I need to check that you weren't hurt too bad by the chains my coven put you in. We need to find Jan, too, to get you home. Where is he?" David asked.

Kelly made a face.

"I'm sorry, I really don't know. He was here when I went to sleep and you all were here when I got up, so he's got to be somewhere."

David nodded.

"Do you mind?" he asked, pointing at Kelly's wrists.

She extended them forward in answer and David prodded them gently. She winced but there were no bruises. He moved on to her forearms and then her shins.

"Franky, please, will you go find Jan?" David asked as he checked the giantess for harm.

Franky nodded and disappeared over the hill.

Her ankles were still slightly red from the cuffs she had worn but she seemed otherwise fine. Linke had not tortured her or made her suffer too much. That must have taken a good deal of restraint considering the condition David had been in when the coven had first kidnapped her.

Franky came back, cuddling a huge squirming black rabbit with sulphurous yellow eyes. 

ØØØ

"Do you know how much of a scare you gave us, you stupid little rabbit?" T:mo heard Franky say as he lifted the rabbit up to look him directly in the eye, "We've spent all day looking for you. I've been worried sick, thinking you got into some trouble, landing all wrong or hitting a goose in the air-"

T:mo stifled a laugh, as did most of the coven, at the tone of Franky's voice. The giantess watched, confusion apparent on her face. The pooka's rabbit form was a well-kept secret even among faeries: pookas usually appeared as horses or birds or more frightening creatures. 

The rabbit squirmed under Franky's tight hold. It thrashed back and forth but Franky did not let it go until he finished chastising it for running off with the girl without telling them. He gently placed it on the ground where it morphed back into Jan, who glared up at Franky and clutched his sides.

"Ow. Were you rough enough?" Jan grumbled.

Franky smiled happily and gathered his little friend into a tight hug before ranting on again about Jan disappearing and almost turning his hair gray. Jan rolled his eyes and just leaned into the needy kiss Franky gave him. 

A tap on his shoulder made T:mo turn around. The giantess stood behind him, looking terribly flushed and embarrassed.

"Um, can you tell, uh, Jan that I, um, wanted to thank him and that, uh, David said y'all were going to get ready to transport me back, um, home?" she asked as she tried to keep her eyes away from Franky and Jan's enthusiastic embrace.

It _was_ rather distracting, T:mo had to admit. He smiled and went to break up the pairing that the two of them had just revealed to her and half of the coven. Linke and David certainly looked surprised. T:mo had guessed but Juri had not, so it was a little abrupt for the three of them even and the giantess was an outsider. Oh, well, they would have her home soon enough.


	11. Full Circle

Kelly swung the sack of potatoes onto her shoulder easily and laid it down on the high stack resting atop the rolling cart. She picked up another and did the same until the cart was almost too heavy to push. She bent half over in the effort to start it up. The left front wheel squeaked and squealed awfully as she pushed the cart down the back hallway. She pushed it back behind the kitchen and unloaded the heavy sacks, each weighing fifty pounds onto the floor rack, then turned the cart around and made her way back.

It was not until she laid the sixth sack on the cart that she noticed the black-clad form leaning against the wall. She looked up, thinking that a customer had wandered into the back, and was met with a cocky smile and a barely familiar set of blue eyes. Kelly had not thought about him in months, not since she had returned from her 'trip', and had forgotten just how attractive she had found him. He really did have the most beautiful blue eyes.

"Jan?" she said, nearly dropping the sack in her hands.

He grinned and took the sack from her, laying it down on the cart. Kelly dusted her apron off and straightened up nervously. She tucked a few loose hairs behind her ears and looked at the small DJ.

"Figures you'd show up when I'm hauling potatoes around," she muttered.

"Because I'm Irish or 'cause you look like a hot mess?" he asked wickedly, giving her a quick once over that did nothing to make Kelly feel sexier.

"Oh, shut up," she snapped automatically, then clapped a hand to her mouth, "Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I-"

He just laughed, his whole chest shaking from amusement.

"It's fine."

Kelly smiled sheepishly and dropped her hand to her side.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"You deserve an apology," a deeper, far more familiar voice said from her right.

Shivers lifted gooseflesh along Kelly's back and arms as she heard once again the voice that had filled her dreams night after night. She turned her head. Linke.

He also was wearing all black, except for his shoes which were a rich brown. Her eyes lingered on the double layered shirts covering his chest and the loose jeans around his legs. When Kelly looked up into his face, she thought she would die from longing. 

"Is there somewhere we can go to talk?" he asked.

Kelly smiled and they went outside, beyond the trash compactor and the recycling bins to a table that overlooked a good deal of the university campus. There the two talked to her, explaining everything they could and asking for her forgiveness. Kelly gave it to them, though in her heart she had already forgiven them. Jan and Linke had given her so much when she had been their prisoner that she had been unable to stay angry. They had no idea that just meeting them had blown her mind. Kelly smiled broadly on the inside, not caring that she might be crazy for the mixed feelings she felt.

ØØØ

Kelly got up for her eight a.m. class the next morning. She slid out of her bed and tied her hair up in a messy bun, too tired to do much else. Georgia was still asleep so Kelly kept the light off. She opened the window a crack to let in some fresh air and gathered her clothes for the day. Once dressed, she went to make her bed.

A slow smile spread across her face when she saw the CDs stacked next to her computer. Kelly picked them up and looked at them: three albums, all of Panik's released work and a CD inscribed with small German-style handwriting. Linke's songs. There was a small thank you note, signed by the whole band. Kelly smiled and read it once, twice, then a third time. It mattered not that the thanks was belated: Kelly was happy.


End file.
